Not so simple leave
by Aine4
Summary: Following Jaz home on leave … what is her home life like, and how quickly things could go sideways.
1. Chapter 1 - Returning Home

This is my second attempt at a story. Longer this time.

I don't own anything.

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Their deployment had ended, days of debriefs at the DIA completed, and a celebratory farewell dinner with most of team finally concluding in the early hours of the morning. The only person missing was Preach, who had awoken from his coma after a few days in Turkey and was currently recovering in SoCal with his family. The doctors were anticipating a complete recovery. So while Preach wasn't with them, they had made multiple toasts in his honor, celebrating into the early hours of the morning.

Not enough hours later an alarm went off. Jaz turned it off and then slowly rolled out of bed, started the small coffee pot in the hotel room and then hit the shower. When she came out she nursed her coffee for a good ten minutes before she started gathering her things. She quickly packed up, checked out and headed to the airport. Still nursing a headache she quietly boarded the commercial flight from Washington DC to LaGuardia, New York. As soon as she took her window seat, she rested her hands in her lap, crossed her ankles, angled her head towards the window and promptly fell asleep.

As the wheels touched down she woke up, sighed and closed her eyes again. It would be another ten minutes before they reached the gate. At least her headache had improved. After deplaning she grabbed her bag from baggage claim and then hailed a taxi to take her home in Brooklyn.

Jaz rented a small apartment, top floor of a converted warehouse. She didn't have a lot of stuff, and just needed a home base for when she was not on deployment. She was a New Yorker, and couldn't think of any other place she wanted to live.

The building superintendent was friendly enough, and accommodating. He allowed her renew her lease early if it was going to expire when she was on deployment. And when she was on long deployments she would sublease her apartment. Of course she always gave him a nice tip before and after her deployments, which always helped smooth any problems along.

She climbed to the third floor and unlocked the door swinging it wide. A cleaning company had been in the previous week, so the place was clean. She had learned her lesson after her second sublease, coming back to a filthy place that had then stood locked up for a month. It took her three days of cleaning before she decided that it was fit for habitation, and considering some of the places the team had to take shelter in, that was saying something.

She walked in, dropped her bad and then crossed through the living room and opened the large window. Even though it had been cleaned and aired out the week prior, there was something about opening that window, climbing out onto the fire escape, and taking in her city that made her feel like she was finally home. After a few minutes she re-entered her apartment, secured the window, walked around checking to make sure nothing was out of order. Then changed and headed back out.

Jaz went to the local grocery store for basics, and then stopped by the local Chinese take-out. Came home, put the groceries away, then took the pint of chicken and broccoli, chop sticks and a can of soda to the window and climbed back out onto the fire escape. As she ate she took in the sights and sounds from the street. It was the beginning of adjusting back to civilian life. She was lucky, her apartment faced the street, not an alley or another building, so she could watch the people and traffic go by. After her lunch she cleaned up and then headed back into the basement.

In addition to renting the apartment, Jaz rented a small storage space in the basement. It took her multiple trips, each time bringing up a large green bin. The first two bins she unpacked were a combination of linens and towels packed around dishes and glassware to help prevent breakage. The next had some picture frames and her coffee pot bundled in with her comforter. The next two bins she opened were clothes, mostly winter wear, which she put aside for later. Four hours later, everything was unpacked and put away.

She heated up a pint of chicken lo mein, grabbed a beer and her cell phone, and headed back to the fire escape. Time to check in with her guys to see how their travel faired, and how they were settling in and adjusting to civilian life again.


	2. Chapter 2 - Home Life

Hope you enjoy. More coming, but I've had these two background chapters written for a while. Feedback is always welcome.

Again, I don't own the Brave or any of its characters.

* * *

When on leave Jaz still followed a variation to her schedule when she was deployed. She woke, had some coffee and then went for a run. Came home, ate breakfast, grab her stuff and headed back out to the gym. Came home again, showered, had a late lunch and then tackled whatever was on that day's agenda. Later was dinner followed by texting with her guys. If the weather was good, dinner and texting was done on the fire escape.

Jaz had first found Dave's Gym on her first leave home from the military. Back then it wasn't as close to her parents place to make it convenient, but she made it work jogging to and from the gym. Just as most recruits she thought she was in good shape before basic training. It didn't take long for her Drill sergeant to prove her wrong. After basic she moved onto advanced individual training. Again, she thought she was in good shape, but this also kicked her butt in a different way, proving how fit she really needed to be to make it in 'this man's' Army.

On her first leave home, she was determined not to lose ground. She looked at all kinds of options to keep up her fitness training. All the main stream gyms had an enrollment fees and a minimum of 12 months enrollment. That wouldn't work, she needed a three-week solution. Looking and asking around she found Dave's Gym, a no frills, classic boxers gym that had been around forever. Girls didn't go to places like Dave's Gym, it was a 'guys gym'. She really had to talk, more cajole her way in. In hind sight she realized it was flashing the dog tags, plus the fact that it was only for three weeks that convinced Dave to give her a chance. It was coming back every day of that leave, spending 4-6 hours in the gym, working out hard every day was what earned her the grudging respect of Dave and some of the other members.

That first week she worked out by herself. Using the heavy bags, light bags, and weights. Early the second week someone asked her if she wanted to spar in the ring. She had seen a bunch of them working out in the corner, bantering back and forth, so she was well aware that this was probably the result of a dare. The first guy to invite her into the ring was doing it to prove something to the other guys. She ended up proving something to them all. After that, every day a different guy would eventually approach her to spar in the ring and she would accept. Each match would invariably start the same, they would start out joking with her while the rest of the guys watching ringside, hitting her with soft blows, not putting any weight into the punch. She let them get away with that a few times as she warmed up and then she would really punch back. That would get their attention and cause them to engage. The first time they really hit her, she could see they expected her to back down, but she didn't. There is no scoring in sparing, but she would hold her own, and steadily earned their respect, one match at a time.

The second time she had leave, she was quick to stop by Dave's gym to find out if they could work out a similar arrangement. This time Dave agreed immediately. The first time, one of the issues Dave cited was that there was only one locker room and as part of the deal, she didn't use it. When she showed up the next day he produced a small bright pink towel and showed her a new nail put in the trim of the locker room door. New rule, if the pink towel was hanging, it was a girls locker room and all the guys needed to stay out. It was low tech but worked. She didn't know it but that first week back, if she was in the locker room, Dave loitered by the door to make sure everyone was educated on the new rule.

* * *

As much as Jaz hated her father she loved her mother. Her mother had tried to protect her from her father's physical and verbal abuse while she was growing up. While she wasn't usually successful, the fact that she tried meant so much to Jaz. And as much as her father would tell her how inadequate and useless she was growing up, her mother would quietly tell her how wonderful she was. If her father was around it would be small whispers, but when he wasn't around her mother would be more vocal in her support. She would celebrate her every success, every good grade, every accolade. Most of the time it was just with a hug and a kiss, but her mother's love was there for her.

Most of the time her father ignored her. To him she was a non-person, who didn't exist. She wasn't even worth acknowledging. Until he needed something, a drink, his dinner, or until something set him off. Then his rage would unfurl, and he would take his anger out on whoever was closest. Her mother tried to take the brunt of it, but there were times Jaz couldn't escape his wrath. And when she got older and tried to protect her mother, her mother would have none of it, putting herself in front and insisting Jaz either leave the room or the apartment.

On her first leave she tried to talk her mother into leaving him. She wanted to get an apartment for the two of them. But her mother was old fashioned and would not leave her father. Second leave went the same way. No matter how much she begged her, pleaded with her, her mother would not relent. And once her father got wind of this, he kicked Jade out and forbade Jaz's mother from seeing or speaking with Jaz again. Her name was not to be spoken in his household ever again.

So now Jaz never saw her father, which was fine by her. But she wouldn't abandon her mother. They had an arrangement, when deployed she would try to call home in the afternoons, when her father would be away at work. And when on leave Jaz would visit every Wednesday afternoon. She would do her normal run and gym routine, come home to shower, change, and visit her mother for a few hours. They would sit, talk and drink tea. And Jaz would leave well before her father was expected home. Each leave she tried to talk her mother into moving in with her, to no avail. Now Jaz lived just two subway stops away from her parents. Not very far for her weekly visit with her mom, but far enough away that she didn't have to worry about running into her father in the street.

Jaz didn't tell her mother any of the harsher details of Army life. She kept all her answers to questions light and upbeat. Yes, she had to go to basic training to get fit and learn to defend herself. And as part of that yes, she had learned how to fire a gun. But as far as her mother was concerned while Jaz might be deployed overseas she wasn't involved in anything dangerous. Her first deployment to Afghanistan she worked with local women and children, building schools and doing community relations type work. And she bunked with female soldiers, and mostly worked with female soldiers. So she kept with that. Jaz also tried to keep most of her stories around the base, unless it was something positive that she could work into her 'safe' narrative. These days the around base stories now included horse shoes, grilling steaks, small fire pits in the early evenings, and looking at the stars in the night sky. She mentioned the antics of Patton, their adopted stray dog. And she made a big point about paperwork, lots of boring paperwork.

If her mother asked her any really hard questions Jaz would deflect and if that wouldn't work, she would indicate that the answer was somehow classified. She didn't tell her that was a sniper, or that she was part of an elite special forces unit that was regularly sent into harm's way. And she definite didn't tell her mother that she lived in a hut with four other men.

While Jaz tried not to outright lie to her mother, she felt no qualms about altering facts to soften her stories and make them fit the narrative she had already built. After her first deployment the SOG 7 she was telling a her mother a funny story about McG. Her mother asked "McG, you keep saying McG, but what kind of name is that?"

Jaz replied, "that's their nick name."

"But why McG and what is her real name?" her mother asked.

"McG is for McGuire, um, Joe McGuire" replied Jaz as calmly as she could.

"Oh, Josephine McGuire, what a lovely name" replied her mother as she took a sip of her tea.

And that was the beginning of her slowly renaming all of her guys. She continued to use their nick names when she talked about them, but when pressed she created a pseudonym for them.

This leave on her third week home her mother asked her "and how is Elizabeth doing? You always have a few funny stories about Elizabeth."

Jaz had to hold her breath for a few seconds and then told her mother "'Eli's left the Army and gone back home to her family." Her mother smiled and exclaimed "Oh how wonder for her. Her family must be very happy to have her home with them."

Jaz froze for a second, then got up and crossed the kitchen to get more cookies and napkins from the counter to give herself a minute to compose herself before she faced her mother again. Her heart breaking for her best friend Elijah. Meanwhile her kept reminding herself that she hadn't lied, he had gone home to his family, to be buried in a family plot in their local cemetery.


	3. Chapter 3 - Coming home from Mom's

Alright, so this is the chapter that started this whole story. What if Jaz had to use some of her training while home on leave? Obviously her sniper skills would not come into play in the streets of New York, but she is skilled in hand to hand combat ...

I don't own the Brave or any of its characters.

* * *

It started out as a normal Wednesday, over two months into leave and Jaz was on her way home after her weekly visit with her mom. She was a few blocks from her parents on her way to the subway station that would take her home. She wandered into a local quick-mart to buy a drink for her trip. It was large for a quick-mart in Brooklyn, with two sets of shelving down the middle, creating three aisles. She wandered down the inside wall with the refrigerated cases, passing a young girl and her mother looking at the ice cream selection.

Jaz grabbed an iced tea from the back and was on her way back up the aisle to pay when she heard a commotion along with a clear "give me all your mon ey" from the front. She quickly swung around and gently but firmly pushed the mother and daughter to the end of the row of shelves, and then immediately pushed them to the ground and said fiercely yet quietly into the mother's ear "stay here, stay down, don't make a sound." The mother stayed down, hugged her daughter and kept whispering quietly into her daughter's ear to try and keep her calm and quiet.

Jaz stayed at the back of the store with the mother and girl. She first looked for ceiling mounted mirrors. She could see where there had been one, one bracket was left, bent, but luckily no mirror to give them away. She kept carefully glancing down the aisles, moving between the aisle ends and carefully glancing around the corner. At the beginning the robbers were very focused at the front of the store. By Jaz's estimation they were almost four whole minutes into the robbery, which most people consider a short period of time but from an operatives perspective it was forever and she was expecting them to be almost done. And then one of them peeled off and started moving down the middle aisle. And as he got closer the more Jaz knew she would have to take him down, quickly and quietly. Like an amateur he held his gun hand too far in front of his body. Surprising him, she was able to grab it and him, and then quietly subdue him. Whatever small noise they made was masked by a noisy compressor to one of the refrigerators. She dragged him to the end of the other aisle, out of sight and then moved to the mother to make sure they were still okay.

But now she knew she couldn't stay, that the other two would come looking for their missing man. Jaz then glanced up either side of the aisles, checking to make sure the coast was clear and then slowly crept up the outside aisle. She also looked for cameras, and there was one at the front of the store facing the counter and door. So even if there was a monitor behind the counter, it wouldn't pick her up until she was well clear of the aisle. When she got to the end she looked carefully around the corner and saw the two guys, one was directly in front of the counter brandishing a gun, the other three feet behind and kept pacing back to look out the door. She quietly crept behind the one closest to her, hitting him on the back of his head and knocked him out, grabbing him to try and quietly slide him to the floor. As the last guy started to turn around she grabbed his gun hand, at first aimed it to the ceiling, then all in one motion she pivoted, then pulled/threw him over her shoulder. He landed with a solid thump and didn't move. She glanced at the clerk and instructed him to "call 911" and when he didn't more right away, she said louder "now." The clerk jumped from his frozen state to the phone and immediately started dialing. Jaz kicked the gun away from the second robber, then checked both to make sure they were still unconscious, but also had a pulse.

The clerk then said "the police are coming."

Keeping her eyes on the downed robbers Jaz asked him "do you have anything we can tie them up with?"

"I have some zip ties in the hardware section" he answered. The 'hardware section' consisted of two short shelves of basic household items.

"Can you get me a few. I want to make sure they are secured in case they come-to before the police arrive." The clerk retrieved a handful and Jaz used them to secure their hands behind their backs.

She then headed to the back of the store to secure the third man and check on the mother and little girl. "You can come out now" Jaz told the mother "they won't be able to hurt you now." Then to the clerk, "I see you have security cameras?"

"Yes, but only the owner can access the tapes" answered the clerk.

"Ok. I'm sure the police will want to review it" replied Jaz.

They could hear the sirens and moments later a police car pulled up, and two officers quickly climbed out. As they walked in, taking in the scene of two women, a child, a store clerk, and three men lying on the ground with their hands tied behind their back the first officer said "Uh, we are responding to a report of an armed robbery."

"Yes," replied the clerk "these men tried to rob the store."

Soon two police detectives arrived. The robbers were taken off to the hospital to be checked out. The detectives first talked with just the clerk, and then just the mother, and finally just Jaz. Taking their statements separately.

When the detectives finally got to Jaz she gave them her name and described what happened. Answering their questions she explained how she was walking to the subway station to go home after visiting her mother, giving them her home address and eventually her parents address, asking "please don't talk to them before talking with me again first".

The first officer, who had introduced himself as Detective Meyers looked at her skeptically and said "you don't look like someone who could take anyone down, never mind these three big guys."

Jaz stood a little straighter and replied a little sharply, "perhaps I should re-introduce myself, Sergeant Jasmine Khan, US Army."

Meyers didn't blink just asked "Active?"

"Yes, but on leave" Jaz answered.

"Do you have any ID?" asked Meyers.

"Only my dog tags. Everything else is back at my apartment" replied Jaz as she pulled out her tags.

Meyers glanced at the dog tags but was still unimpressed, still suspicious.

Jaz asked "Detective, surely there is there a security video showing the attempted robbery."

"Don't worry about that" was his dismissive reply as he walked away.

As Detective Meyers walked away he pulled out his cell phone, calling the local military liaison officer. He explained the attempted armed robbery and asked him to run a background check a Sergeant Jasmine Khan with the U.S. Army. The detective didn't believe that Jaz was able to take down the three men. His gut told him that something was off about the whole situation, and he didn't like that. And he was sure she was somehow involved.

Meanwhile Jaz pulled out her cell phone dialing Dalton. He replied on the second ring "Dalton here."

Speaking quietly she replied "Top, it's Jaz, I might be in some trouble here. I stopped a robbery. Took down three robbers, protecting three civilians. No one was hurt, no shots were fired. I asked about the security video and can't get any information on it… " her voice trailed off for a second and then "Top, the police are acting sketchy. I think this is going to be a problem."

After that Dalton started asking questions.

After Lt. Brian Martin hung up the phone with Detective Meyers, he logged into the military personnel database, put in the search parameters and was surprised when the area that would display the records found came back blank. No records display, and there was no 'no records found' message either. He was just starting to think that this was strange when his cell phone started ringing. He answered and was greeted with "Lieutenant Martin?"

"Yes, who is this?" replied the Lieutenant.

"You just ran a search on a Sergeant Jasmine Khan?" asked a voice.

"Yes, who is this?" replied the Lieutenant a little more firmly.

The voice replied "this is Hannah from the DIA. Please hold for the Deputy Director." The only thought going through Brian's head after hearing 'DIA' and 'Deputy Directory' was 'oh, shit' as he sat up straight in his chair as if the person on the other end of the phone could see him.

"Lieutenant Martin, this is Deputy Director Campbell. I understand you just ran a search on Sergeant Khan. Please explain the situation" asked Patricia briskly and professionally. Brian briefly explained the robbery, and how Jaz was involved. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Her commanding officer will be there tomorrow to assist" replied Patricia.

Confused Brian asked "Director can you please explain what is going on? Why you are calling?"

"Captain Dalton will be able to assist you with the situation when he arrives on scene tomorrow" replied Patricia.

"But I don't understand" stated Brian in confusion.

"I understand. As I said Captain Dalton will be able to assist you when you see him tomorrow."

"Ma'am, the police officers aren't believing what she is saying" replied Brian.

"I understand, that is one of the reasons why I'm sending Captain Dalton. Hannah will be back in touch with you shortly to arrange logistics" replied Patricia before she hung up.

Brian looked at the phone in his hand, and all he could think was 'what just happened?' Followed by a 'did that really just happen?' Fifteen minutes later Hannah called back to confirm logistics for the following day.

After Director Campbell hung up with the Lieutenant she immediately called Dalton's cell. Seeing the caller ID Dalton hung up with Jaz and answered "Director Campbell, I was just about to call you. I've just been talking with Jaz."

"Yes she apparently stopped an armed robbery. The local authorities are questioning her statement of events and her ability to take out three armed robbers."

"Yeah, Jaz is getting a sketchy vibe off one of the detectives, and they are not giving her an answer about video" replied Dalton.

"Yes, that is a concern. I need you to be there first thing in the morning. I'll have Hannah confirm all the details and get back to you."


End file.
